Report by FOM Volunteer Manav Bhargava
The Friends Of Max Patient Support Group meeting was held on 12th August, 2018 at Dwarka Prasad Bhargava Charitable Trust from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The meeting started off at 9 a.m. with registrations of patients and delicious breakfast. We had volunteers and patients participating from all over Uttar Pradesh, even from Ghaziabad.
Two well experienced Blood Disorders/ Haematology Doctors i.e. Dr Rahul Bhargava from Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon and Dr. Mandal from Royal Cancer Hospital, Kanpur consented to attend the meeting and address queries and resolve issues of the patients and their loved ones..
The meeting kicked off with an inaugural address by Amma. Then the doctors were welcomed with a small token from Max Foundation
Thereafter the doctors gave a short introduction about CML and GIST. Dr. Rahul Bhargava was a great help by making the patients feel at ease by explaining everything in simple terms and lightening the atmosphere with his sense of humour. Then patients and their family members were given a chance to interact with doctors and shoot their questions. Dr. Rahul Bhargava and Dr. Mandal successfully addressed the queries and issues of the patients by providing them instant advice and recommendations.
This was followed by an engaging Compliance Workshop which was conducted to ensure the patients take their medicines regularly, monitor their conditions and take correct dosage. The where patients were divided in four groups represented by different colours and were asked to choose a leader of their group. Then all the groups were asked to note down reasons ‘Why do I take medicine regularly?’. Thereafter leaders noted down the reasons after discussing among their group and then two members of each group shared their responses with everyone. All the groups handled this question well and interacted beautifully.
The second exercise was that the groups had to give their responses to the question ‘Why do I not take my medicine regularly’. This too was handled well by the members and there were some interesting responses like a lot of patients said they do not take the medicine when they fast and had their reservations about taking the medicine when they were fasting.
The next exercise was filling up survey forms. The survey had interesting questions and its objective was to get an idea about challenges that CML patients face. This was explained to the members with the help of the Projector and a live demonstration. The members could even take the survey online on their smart phones. The volunteers also helped the patients to fill up the survey forms.
The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks and delicious lunch followed by group photographs and sale of T-shirts to help the Max Foundation cause.
The meeting was a huge success. Patients learned a lot about how to fight CML and side effects of the medicine. There were a lot of members who attended the meeting for the first time and all of them promised not to miss any later. One of the suggestions was to have a get together annually along with a picnic and there were recommendations that a WhatsApp group be formed specially for the people of Kanpur chapter.